The

The United States I'm One Tuesday morning in autumn, at precisely half-past eight, Sherlock Holmes received a mysterious message that two men of great public distinction would be visiting Baker Street in their private capacity

and under circumstances of complete secrecy.

As our tale begins, two distinguished visitors,

the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Lord Bellinger,

and the Secretary of State for European Affairs,

the right Honorable Trelawney Hope,

arrive on Baker Street to consult the great detective upon a desperate matter of national security.

But originally, this wasn't meant to be the opening sequence at all.

In his book, a study in Celluloid, Michael Cox recalled.

John Hawksworth's adaptation of the second stain is probably the most faithful adaptation in the whole series.

We even went as far as to recreate Watson's visit to homes in retirement to seek permission to publish.

We chose a cottage in Rostearn and imported the necessary beehives.

We established the time difference by including a recruiting column for the

Boer War. Jeremy judifully adopted the veil and gloves of a beekeeper, but was patently unhappy

as the older homes. An elaborate disguise was one thing. Real evidence of advancing years was quite another.

In Granada's greatest detective, author Keith Frankel adds,

The piece was found to be severely overrunning,

and Wyndham Davies, Cox, and director John Bruce

were all of one mind about which particular scene had to be excised.

With its questionable aesthetics and superfluity to the rest of the narrative,

the beekeeping sequence was swiftly extracted and promptly archived to the Granada Valtz.

...